Canterbury students’ Rubik’s Cube robot awaits Guinness World Records confirmation
A robot capable of solving a Rubik’s Cube in under 10 seconds – potentially smashing both the robotic and human world records – has been built in Christchurch.
Inspired by a social media video, four University of Canterbury students spent about a year developing innovative technology to outperform the current record holder, overcoming complex engineering challenges to turn their project into a potential Guinness World Records achievement.
Final-year engineering students Maz Cameron, Johann Torres, Caleb Everitt and Hayden Watson made their official world record attempt last week, recording 9.806 seconds.
They are now awaiting confirmation from Guinness World Records.
The idea was inspired by a social media video showing the world record-holding robot solving a 4x4 Rubik’s Cube in 45 seconds.
Noticing that the robot was significantly slower than the human world record of 15 seconds, the group saw an opportunity to push the technology further.
“We knew that robots could be better than humans, and we wanted to be the people to break that gap,” said Cameron.
“The 4x4 Rubik’s Cube is more complex [than the 3x3], and I think that combination of complexity and a low budget to attempt breaking the record was what excited us.”
Each student took responsibility for a different aspect of the robot, from designing and building its physical structure and developing the camera system to programming the motors and integrating software needed to solve the cube.
Everitt was in charge of mechanical design, Torres of electrical and motor control, Watson oversaw computer vision and Cameron, software development.
“The robot has four cameras; it looks at the cube and sees where all the different colours are,” Watson explained.
“This information is then fed into an open-source algorithm that works out the moves needed to solve it.”
The team explained that the robot combined faster motors with an innovative design that allowed it to solve the cube more efficiently than the current record holder.
“The previous robot can only do face rotations in two out of the three cube axes, so it has to reorientate the cube, which essentially wastes a move,” said Everitt.
“Whereas we don’t do that because we can access all three faces.”
Challenges included developing a camera system that could accurately distinguish between similar colours under different lighting conditions and ensuring the cube wouldn’t jam during high-speed movements.
The students responded by refining their software, improving the robot’s structural rigidity and introducing suction cups to move the cube more quickly and precisely, overcoming these challenges through extensive testing and problem-solving.